Key Practices for Someone on the Path to Sadhana Bhakti

“The objective is sadhana bhakti…” Janardan Maharaj discusses in this Sunday Feast lecture, the practical process of developing vaishnava qualities according to the examples of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur. He emphasizes remembering the spiritual master at all times (which is actually the reason to follow spiritual injunctions) and avoiding intentional offenses against devotees. Later Maharaj describes the first of Sriman Mahaprabhu’s eight Sikshastakam prayers (see below), explaining among other things, that “the chanting process is a cleansing process.” This whole mission is built on chanting the holy name of the Lord and that is the natural process for cleansing one’s heart. Maharaj’s description of this verse is very thorough and illuminating. Here is the Sanskrit verse itself with Srila Sridhar Maharaj’s translation into English:

“The Holy Name of Krishna cleanses the mirror of the heart and extinguishes the fire of misery in the forest of birth and death. As the evening lotus blooms in the moon’s cooling rays, the heart begins to blossom in the nectar of the Name. And at last the soul awakens to its real inner treasure—a life of love with Krishna. Again and again tasting nectar, the soul dives and surfaces in the ever-increasing ocean of ecstatic joy. All phases of the self of which we may conceive are fully satisfied and purified, and at last conquered by the all-auspicious influence of the Holy Name of Krishna.”